Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics

The lecture builds on a long tradition of research into the valency of Czech nouns and adjectives at the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics. In order to place the issue of the valency of nouns and adjectives motivated by nouns within the context of other derivational categories, I will begin by describing the valency lexicon NomVallex. NomVallex has implemented a new feature which allows users to visualize the derivational relations recorded in the lexicon using a graph representation, thereby identifying and examining changes in valency associated with word-formation relations. The possibilities and limitations of studying changes in valency, including the related issue of valency inheritance, will then be demonstrated using the example of nouns and adjectives motivated by nouns. First, I will focus on valency of denominal nouns, particularly those formed by circumfixation (e.g., vláda ‘reign’ > bezvládí ‘anarchy’, hrana ‘edge’ > rozhraní ‘borderline’, skála ‘rock’ > úskalí ‘pitfall’), with the main goal being to examine the effect of the type of the base noun (abstract vs. concrete) on the valency of the derived noun. Second, dealing with valency of compound nouns and adjectives (e.g., lidovláda ‘people_reign, democracy’, světovláda ‘world_rule, world rule’, světoznámý ‘world_famous, world-famous’, pomstychtivý ‘revenge_avid, vengeful’), I will describe complicated syntactic relations between complements of the compounds on the one hand and the compounds’ constituents (i.e., the head and the non-head) on the other. I will aim to show how the valency of the compound’s constituents contributes to the valency of the compound as a whole.

 

*** The talk will be delivered in person (MFF UK, Malostranské nám. 25, 4th floor, room S1) and will be streamed via Zoom. For details how to join the Zoom meeting, please write to sevcikova et ufal.mff.cuni.cz ***